I’m going to be gracious and say that’s what it was.  He was just in a rhythm and because of that it felt possible.

A couple weeks ago the husband and I both had to be out on a Monday night, in the same direction, so to save fuel we rode together. That was good of us. I am always a bit leery of this kind of arrangement because it means giving up a great deal of control.  When my meeting starts first I get dropped off and I never know when/if  I’ll get picked up again.  He tends to lose track of time.  I think it’s wonderful that he’s such an “in the moment” type of person, but understandably, he’s always more in his moment than in mine.  I have resorted to walking to meet him (blisters from walking two miles in dress shoes) or waiting in the deserted parking lot (creepy).

The other vulnerable element is having to let the husband drive my car.  Sometimes I just have to put anxiety aside, let it go, because there is no other reasonable choice.  And when/if he picks me up, and if I don’t make him get out of the driver’s seat I end up being a passenger. When I do this, I know God is giving me an exercise in self control.  I abhor having to tell other people how to drive and unless we are about to go head on into a semi-truck I try to keep silent.  It’s hard.  I try not to even watch the road when the husband drives because, well, I just trust that we won’t die before it’s our time to go.

We did a short stretch on the interstate, all was well, and then headed west in city traffic.  As I said, I was not paying a great deal of attention until, going through a wide, major intersection, there was an unusually bright flash of light.  It had never happened to me before but I knew what it was.  We had been photographed.  A Kodak moment on the road.  That doesn’t happen because you have a beautiful car, or you’ve won a drivers sweepstakes.  It means the traffic signal was red and somebody didn’t stop when they should have.

This week, in the mail, I got a letter with a picture of my car traveling, alone, through the intersection.  It was a nice shot – the only thing I would have done differently would have been to get the angle that showed who was driving.  So now I have a violation on my license until it’s cleared up (and it will be, trust me).  There is a “generous” fine.  In explaining the whole thing to my daughter on the phone today, the husband told her “well, I went through two other yellow lights before I got to this one…” so I figure that he was kind of in a rhythm that he didn’t want to break.  Like he said, it should have been a longer light.  Like he said, those traffic cams aren’t legal are they? Like he said, he didn’t want to have to slam on the brakes.  Excuses, excuses.  I’m just sayin’…